Category Archives: Korean film

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Ki-taek’s entire family is unemployed, and is very interested in the lifestyle of the wealthy Park family. One day, their son managed to be recommended to give private lessons of English at the Park. This is the beginning of an uncontrollable gear, which nobody will come out really unscathed …

Ki-taek and his family: are poor they are down on the bottom , they are folding pizza boxes for peanuts, freeloading off any wifi signal from their neighbor upstairs also trying to stop a drunk passersby from urinating by their basement apartment. They are unemployed. his son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) gets a chance of posing as a university-educated English tutor for the teenage daughter of a wealthy family. His son has an idea. He is going to put it in place. But a twist is going to come along where is is going to escalate to hell and back.

Here is a film with a different take on a home invasion. The visual of the film is excellent especially the screenplay. The basement is this filthy concrete where anything could happen, however the house and garden are beautiful . There are two world here the world from above and the world from below. Where some live in this beautiful house with countless staff and some others live in a basement home where when it rain the sewers flood up. Our protagonists have the intelligence to take step where they will invade the life of this bourgeois family , closing little by little a trap on them which they do not will be able to extricate themselves more. Bong Joon Ho established a humorous atmosphere. The film start with comedy and then in the middle of the film is is going to get darker. The question is does having a lot of money makes you happy? The ensemble cast who has great chemistry are outstanding. I think this film is going to do well at the box office. The movie theater was packed at 4PM yesterday. The first Korean film that won the Palme D’or for best film.

Lee Jung-soo (Ha Jeong-woo) is a salesman for Kia Motors, finishing up his work and going home. He’s got a cake for his daughter, getting fuel for the car , and heading home. On his way, he calls his wife (Doona Bae) to let her know how things have been, when suddenly a tunnel he is passing through (newly opened ) decides to cave in and trap him inside his car with nowhere to go. Is he going to see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Yes an other Korean film here and a good one at that. Here is a dude who goes home and suddenly this new tunnel collapse and he is trapped under way under we come to find out later in the film. Character driving with emotions flowing around. The thing is here you see what the journey Lee is taking in order to survive the ordeal. There is a twist in the story if you want to call it that something I didn’t foresee but I knew how it was going to end because of one element they put in. Doona Bae which I love throws a great performance here as the wife of Lee. The film is design to keep you focus on Lee most of the time. You can feel what he feels, it is getting claustrophobic at time with the sound of the gravel that keep on falling to add up to the tension. Kim does not use too much or not at all music to get the tension going. Kim also shows you the dumb thing that the media is willing to do in order to get the story. Towards the end of the film you will question the morality here and ask yourself the question if this was happening now will it happen really like that. The question here what is the human life worth.

South Korean director Park Chan-wook is probably best known for his 2003 Cannes Grand Prix winner Oldboy, and now he has come in with this other master piece The handmaiden

During 30s, during the Japanese colonization. A young woman is hired as a maid for a rich Japanese living in a huge mansion under the thumb of a tyrannical uncle . But Sookee has a secret.

Park loves intricate narratives so Sarah Waters’ source material, the 2002 novel Fingersmith, fits him well. You trow in there a pervert old man, something horrible in the basement, two beautiful woman, and a con artist,and a seemingly naive heiress all simmering together in a savory mixture of deception. Park moves the story from 19th century England to 1930s Korea under the Japanese occupation. The film has layer of mystery here in which you will be glue to the screen. Park has created a film of delightful erotic mystery that will please your brain. The Handmaiden is ultimately a tale of freedom and transformation very well choreograph as a four-course meal. The film has won the Grand prix at the Cannes film festival with the Prix du Jury.

This film was presented at the 69 film cannes festival at a midnight screening, “Train to Busan” will have startled more than a spectator, making the show (sometimes funny) and giving shivers for almost two hours. zombie movie in the greatest tradition in no way seeking to explain the reasons for the spread of a supposed virus, while this movie Korean manages its special effects while maintaining a frantic pace, and causes a surprise, returning to the classic mode.

You will follow a group of people stuck in a train, while surrounding with blood thirsty humans who turned violent, or the separation of the group between cars that will elevate the suspense. The director amplify the horror in keeping in the close place of a train with includes the stops or not at the other train station. It is one of the best horror film that will involve ordinary people fighting for their lives. The passagers includes cold single dad Seok-woo (Yoo Gong) and his sweet gradeschool daughter, Su-an (Su-an Kim); pregnant Sung-kyung (Yu-mi Jung) and her gruff husband, Sang-hwa (Dong-seok Ma); an entire athletic team (baseball bats that is used to beat the shit out of zombies. The film uses its moment of humor. A real little movie fun, stimulating the survival instinct as well as the thirst for destruction.

In the town of Gokseong, the wife of a ginseng farmer is killed and a police officer Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won) is called in to investigate. The woman was brutally murdered as the corpse of the farmer was found in a bag at the same location and believed to be dragged there by a man covered in boils and a mysterious rash. Jong-gu has no leads until a mysterious woman (Chun Woo-hee) points him in the direction of a Japanese man (Jun Kunimara) who is rumored to be a ghost.

May the man hunt begins. Like I said before Korean cinema is reinventing itself with some interesting and creative story telling.the film is unlike any film you’ve seen this year and one of the most unusual experiences which are a little bizarre at times. This thriller is a ghost story wrapped inside of a crime film and packaged with a crate of horror, to top it all off this film is unpredictable from the start. Then thing is it uses a bit of humor at the beginning where police officers Jong-gu and Seong-bok are idiots who are constantly giving each other a hard time and mocking the situation. It is a captivating thriller well written and thought out and that is the reason I watch foreign film as always int is not film like you standard american film. It is a different film and a completely a different experience. Hong-jin Na has an original idea here that is masterly filmed. This film is a combination of the exorcist, invasion of the body snatchers, Angel heart rewritten. The other film from Korea to watch it is coming next month in France is the last train of Busan.

Based on the true story of President Park Chung-hee and the events leading up to his assassination in 1979.

Here is a touchy situation for director Sang-soo Im he knew that the government was not crazy of him telling the story. Plus they cut 4 minutes of the film, which now has the uncut version of the film on DVD that is the one that I watched. Sang-soo Im has film that one in between the Godfather and Good Fellows. like a thriller but with brutal force and bloody.President Park Chung-hee survived several assassination attempts, including two operations associated with North Korea, Park was eventually assassinated on 26 October 1979 by Kim Jae-gyu, the chief of his own security services.

Geuddae geusaramdeul the original title for the film actually means The People of That Time. The story is narrated by Kim Jae-gyu point of views when he decided he is going to kill the president and his guards, the thing is going to go in motion with some resistance from his man but Kim but them in their place and the execution goes forward. There are some comic moment in the film. Kim and his soldier shows no fear not even remorse of what they have done. Nether does the director he wrote the project himself and film it his own way . When the studio saw the film the rug was pulled out under their feet. The biggest distribution of film in Korea said to him they were pulling out of it. Luckily he found some one else and suddenly other countries bought it. It is not an easy film for his country to watch or for anyone for that matter. ironically Park’s first-born daughter, Park Geun-hye, is the current President of South Korea.

This film won the Pix Du Jury at the Film Festival of Cannes. And yes it is a story about some blood thirsty vampire but a different one at that. It is about a catholic priest which a priest is a good man but it is crucial in this story. He died because he volunteered as a subject for a deadly medical experiment. He is resurrected as a vampire after receiving a transfusion of tainted blood not his fault there. here is when it becomes interesting, he does not seek his fang into victim and drink their blood. Instead he gets it at the hospital from patient who are in a coma dying like I said he is a good priest it is crucial of the story.

Again here how it becomes interesting he is extremely attracted to a childhood friend who is married (nice touch there) he tries to get close to her. She is mistreated by her husband. now I do not want to divulge too much information but he is triyng his best to resist the temptation, the girl on the other hand goes for it full throttle, and what happens next is a thirsty blood bath à la Korean with comedy and gruesome flavor.

Like I said before there is a new wave of Korean film makers that are very imaginative and inventive. This one however is original and well written. The cinematography is brilliant, I love the colors here. It is a beautiful love story out of the ordinary a realistic vampire story that is going to get addictive. By the way who wants to live forever on the blood of the innocent not a good thing. This one is best seen by drinking a bloody Mary.